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Minnesota state Sen. David Hann (R) says health care decisions should be made within the family, not by "strangers." So he's sponsored a bill that would change a current law that allows minors to see a doctor without their parents' consent.

The bill would require minors to get parental consent before seeking medical care for sexually transmitted diseases, drug abuse and pregnancy. It would also allow parents to have access to their child's medical records. The bill has been approved by the Minnesota Senate Health and Human Services Committee, which Hann chairs. No action has yet been taken by the House.

The president famous for his BlackBerry adoration is apparently not impressed with the Oval Office's landlines. In an unscripted moment caught on tape by CBS, President Barack Obama last week asked of his White House: where are the "cool phones"?

"You know the Oval Office always thought I was going to have like real cool phones and stuff," Obama said at a fundraiser in Chicago last week. "You know, we can't get our phones to work!Â I'm like 'come on guys, I'm the President of the United States.'Â Where's the fancy buttons and stuff, and the big screen comes up? It doesn't happen."

John Cook and Hamilton Nolan | Gawker

The small-town newspapers in New York's Hudson Valley that Fox News chief Roger Ailes owns with his wife Elizabeth are in a staff revolt after employees caught Ailes spying on them with News Corp. security goons.

Every one of Detroit's public school teachers is receiving a layoff notice -- but that doesn't mean they will all be fired.

The layoff notices were sent to the 5,466 unionized teachers "in anticipation of a workforce reduction to match the district's declining student enrollment," according to a Detroit Public Schools statement. The layoff notices are required as part of the Detroit Teachers Federation collective-bargaining agreement. Non-Renewal notices have also been sent to 248 administrators, and the layoffs would go into effect by July 29.

The White House has released the text of President Obama's speech on the deficit, as prepared for delivery. Here's the full text:

Good afternoon. It's great to be back at GW. I want you to know that one of the reasons I kept the government open was so I could be here today with all of you. I wanted to make sure you had one more excuse to skip class. You're welcome.

Of course, what we've been debating here in Washington for the last few weeks will affect your lives in ways that are potentially profound. This debate over budgets and deficits is about more than just numbers on a page, more than just cutting and spending. It's about the kind of future we want. It's about the kind of country we believe in. And that's what I want to talk about today.

From our first days as a nation, we have put our faith in free markets and free enterprise as the engine of America's wealth and prosperity. More than citizens of any other country, we are rugged individualists, a self-reliant people with a healthy skepticism of too much government.

Congress probably deserves "medals" for approving one of the "largest year-to-year cut in the federal budget," Hensarling said Sunday on CNN's State of the Union. "Relative to the size of the problem, it is not even a rounding error. In that case, we probably all deserve to be tarred and feathered."

A Frontline investigation reveals that alleged Wikileaks source Pfc. Bradley Manning threatened his stepmother with a knife in 2006.

Manning's father, Brian Manning, in an interview with Frontline said the incident spawned from a discussion of Bradley Manning needing to follow house rules. Then things reached a boiling point, he said.

"My husband's 18-year-old son is out of control and just threatened me with a knife," Manning's stepmother told the 911 dispatcher. "And his father has just had surgery and he is down on the floor... Get away from him! You, get away from him! Get away from him!"